WEST VIRGINIANS BEARING ONE-HALF COST OF "FRIENDLY" POWER PLANT

(12/12/2007)

A new generation coal-fired power plant in Mason County will be discussed at a number of public hearings. The proposed plant is being sold as more friendly to the environment by American Electric Power. About half the 2.1 billion cost of the plant will be paid by customers in West Virginia the other half by those in Virginia. The plant joins concerns about citizens of WV assuming a more than reasonable financial and environmental burden, including the building of high-tension power transmission lines to deliver power to the northeast. The PSC says the public will bear all the risk for the project in their pocketbooks, and much of the money is being asked up-front. The Mason County next-generation plant works by converting coal to gas, then uses that gas to run turbines which creates the electric power. The 629-megawatt plant would be built next to its 1,300-megawatt Mountaineer Plant at New Haven. Hearings are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday in the large hearing room at the Public Service Commission's headquarters in Charleston.

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001